The waters around Fiji come in an amazing palette of blues.Mark Stachiew
/ Postmedia Network

The tropical flowers of Fiji are omnipresent and frequently used for decoration.Mark Stachiew
/ Postmedia Network

It's hard to beat the view from the rooms of the overwater bures at Liku-Liku Resort.Mark Stachiew
/ Postmedia Network

If someone told me that the people of Fiji have 100 words to describe the different shades of blue in the water and sky that bless their tropical paradise, I would believe them.

Of course, it’s not true, but when the sun shines, the waters that surround this Pacific nation’s 320-plus islands and hundreds more islets transform into more shades of blue than you can even begin to name.

Many Canadians know little about Fiji, often confusing it with Tahiti, although the two are completely different. Because of its short distance away by plane, Australians and New Zealanders have long enjoyed it as a holiday destination. Now a growing number of North Americans are starting to find out about Fiji for themselves, often using it as a stop to break up the long journey to Australia, and they are learning that it is a place with a distinct culture and history.

Some of these travellers are arriving in Fiji via cruise ships which are making it a port of call while others are flying there from Los Angeles or Hawaii, often with Fiji Airways, formerly Air Pacific, which operates frequent flights.

Flights arrive in Nadi, a town on the west coast of the largest island, Viti Levu. From there, they can journey to a dizzying array of coastal resorts, ranging from the most luxurious five-star establishment on a private island to the most humble backpacker hostel. Tourism is the country’s largest industry which no doubt thrives thanks not only to the the natural beauty of the islands, but also because of the disarming friendliness of Fijians.

It would be lazy and patronizing to portray the people of Fiji as smiling, happy natives. Like people everywhere, there are good and bad folks, but the majority of people I encountered during my brief stay, even those outside of the tourism industry, were more than happy to teach me about their country and their culture. Considering that the people in Fiji live in what Canadians would consider a bona-fide island paradise, it may be realistic to believe that Fijians are truly are as happy as they seem.

Communicating with Fijians is easy as English is widely spoken. During my time there, two topics dominated just about every conversation I had with the people I met when trying to learn what made the country tick - rugby and kava.

Rugby is easy to explain. As a former British colony, the islanders were exposed to the rough and tumble sport and considering the large number of towering Fijian men, many of whom seem as wide as they are tall, it’s no wonder that rugby was so eagerly embraced. If you get a chance to visit the country during rugby season, be sure to take in a local match to see how obsessed Fijians are with the sport. And when the national team, nicknamed the Flying Fijians, is playing, the country comes to a virtual standstill.

As for kava, it’s a ceremonial drink which has a long history in the island. Made from the powdered root of a pepper plant, the drink has a relaxing effect on muscles while keeping the brain completely lucid. In olden times, island chiefs, who rarely spoke the same language, would meet and consume the drink together. With both chiefs mellowed by kava, the tribes would agree not to fight each other and peace was maintained.

Today, it’s a recreational drink and mostly men, but some women, will consume it in social settings and visitors are often asked to share a kava bowl or two or more. It’s good form to accept any such invitation and if you really want to be accepted, don’t give up after just one bowl. It may be another explanation behind the widespread friendliness of Fijians.

A popular activity for visitors to Fiji is to visit a rural village, the sort where most of the country’s residents live. Kava drinking rituals are de rigueur during these visits, but you’ll have opportunities to try it at just about any resort.

For a more conventional drink, Fiji’s second biggest industry is sugar. One of the offshoots of sugar cane cultivation is rum and the island has an excellent spirit called Bounty which is not exported so the only place you can try it is Fiji.

On the food front, the island nation is, not surprisingly, a good place for seafood lovers and a traditional cooking method for fish and other foods is lovo which is where meals are cooked in pots buried in a pit with hot coals. The biggest revelation, however, may be the abundance of excellent Indian food as nearly half of Fiji’s population is Indian, descended from labourers who were brought there by the British to work the sugar fields.

Most people come to Fiji simply to relax by the sea, but those who are more active like to get out on to the water. Surfing, sailing, windsurfing, and snorkelling are all popular as is scuba diving. There is a multitude of great dive spots throughout the islands, but one notable place is Namena Marine Reserve, located off the coast of the second-largest island, Vanua Levu. It is a location which is frequently visited by L’Aventure, the dive shop operated at Jean-Michel Cousteau Resort. The resort is associated with the son of the famed explorer Jacques Cousteau, inventor of the aqua-lung.

I was lucky enough to meet Jean-Michel during my visit. He’s a charming and tireless man in his 70s who still travels the world making documentaries that chronicle nature and mankind’s adverse affect on it. He has a lifetime of stories and was happy to share anecdotes with me. It’s clear that Fiji and its residents have a special spot in his heart. “These people are, in my view, as pure in their origin as you can find,” he said.

He found it somewhat ironic that his globetrotting father never visited the island during his many journeys.

“I made my Dad discover Papua-New Guinea. I wanted to show him a new place on the planet, because he spent a lifetime showing me, but he never got to Fiji -- Fiji is mine!” he joked.

The resort that bears the Cousteau name is a five-star resort with private bures, which are thatched-roof bungalows. Modelled after a traditional Fijian village, the resort prides itself on its green practices which is part of the ethos preached by Cousteau.

He spoke about his visit to the infamous garbage patch that is swirling around the middle of the Pacific Ocean and recounted how he visited one desolate island in the northern part of the ocean and in one small stretch of beach he identified, through product labels, trash from 52 different nations.

“We are using the ocean as a garbage dump and a universal sewer. That’s our life support system,” he said.

Listening to Cousteau while gazing at the blue waters of Fiji, it’s hard to believe that this pristine land could ever become a garbage dump, but those 100 shades of blue might become 100 shades of brown if we aren’t more vigilant.

IF YOU GO …Getting there: Fiji Airways flies to Fiji from Los Angeles and Hawaii. Alaska Airlines has a codeshare agreement for flights from Vancouver to LAX and then on to Nadi. fijiairways.com

When to go: Just about any time is a good time to visit. The best months to visit are from March to December. November to April is the rainy season, but rain is usually brief, although heavy. Year-round temperatures range from 26 to 31C.

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